El Cheapo lens for 4x5 / Graphic Kowa 150 f/9

Hi one and all! My name is Vallo and I am new to both this board and LF.
First, I am familiar with view cameras, I made one for myself out of scrap parts but it is mere 120 film format with a 6x7 frame. I want bigger. Ideally I want to reach 8x10 but until then 4x5 will do.
Since I come from a less economically able part of Europe, I don't have much cash to throw around for a decent camera, so I will make one myself. No biggie. Now, the lenses can be quite expensive. I have my eye on Tominon 127 and 105, both which allegedly cover 4x5 and go around cheap sometimes. I have a 75mm version myself but that doesn't cover nearly enough at infinity. But the Tominons are getting scarce and expensive and a good, cheap Raptar is also a bit hard to find.
Now, I got a nice metal plate from a neighbour of mine and that metal plate has 4, yes, 4 Graphic Kowa 150mm f/9 lenses mounted on it, without shutters unfortunately. But I like what I see on ground glass so I'd really like to utilize one for a 4x5 camera. It has a nice coverage, too. I am unfamiliar with the terminology but I believe these are barrel mounted? How could one attach a shutter to this lens?
Alternatively, I could offer a trade - one of the Kowas for a shutter for this lens or some other shuttered lens I could use for my project. All of the Kowas are in good condition.

If your Graphic Kowa lenses' elements are mounted in barrels with diaphragms you should be able to unscrew the cells from the barrel. The cells might (great stress, might) be direct fits in a shutter; if so, the most likely is Compur/Copal #0. See http://www.skgrimes.com/products/new-copal-shutters for dimensions.

If the lenses are in barrels with diaphragms and the cells won't fit a standard shutter, you may be able to mount a lens in barrel in front of a shutter. This will need one adapter, will cost less than having adapters made for the two cells.

If the lenses are mounted in straight tubes with no diaphragm, you'll have to try dismantling one to see whether the glasses are in cells. If so, fine, if not they're essentially useless.

Your best bet, either way, is to offer the lenses for sale on ebay. The lenses should be quite small, so international shipping won't be prohibitively expensive; the best place to offer them is probably ebay.com.

The 150mm f9 Graphic Kowas are supposed to cover up to 5x7 or 4x10 inches, so they are good options for 4x5. I think they would need a professional shutter installation - not all barrel lenses can have a shutter substituted by direct exchange. You will need to research that. You could look at using a Packard shutter or even fabricate a drop blade type. http://www.largeformatphotography.info/ is the place to ask these questions.

Some barrel lenses can be mounted directly in shutters, like G-Clarons and some enlarging lenses, while the others are nearly impossible (Zeiss Jena Apo-Germinar W for example), because the lenses are mounted directly in the barrel. Those barrel lenses that have cells that easily go into shutters have basically just an iris mount in place of a complete shutter.

The cheapest way might very well be for you to find a strong neutral density (gray) filter for your lens so at an aperture of f/22 or smaller you can expose for a few seconds in broad daylight with the aid of a black hat or black paint can cap, or an empty small paint can that is painted black: anything you can cover your lens with without touching it.

If you intend to use paper negatives, you might just as well get away without a shutter.

Using paper developer for your film will also reduce your film speed, which can help.

After these come Packard shutters.

Or you can just take out the shutter from an old battered Pentacon Six, put it in a housing and use it right behind your lens.

There are many possibilities but at the end, it's worth putting aside for a lens in a shutter in your standard focal length if you're certain LF is for you.

Thanks for the replies so far!
ND and a hat wont work for me, might as well shoot pinhole :P
That Packard shutter or cannibalizing some other camera for shutter would be a good last resort!
However, it seems to me that I can screw out the cells but I don't have the proper tool to do that yet.
I attached some pictures of the actual lens. The barrel measures 38mm measured from the threaded part for us metric folk. The "screwable" part that looks like a cell to me measures some 33mm. Ignore the wide metal mounting piece, that comes off if I were to apply enough force.
There also seems to be a fixed iris right in the middle, so my guess is that if it really consists of cells, it could gain a stop in a shutter?
I gave a call to my neighbour, he said it was from some sort of complicated copying apparatus they used at the hospital in the old days.

There also seems to be a fixed iris right in the middle, so my guess is that if it really consists of cells, it could gain a stop in a shutter?

By the way, I really like Tominons, even at low magnifications. Despite being reverse-tessar macro lenses, they draw good at my opinion.

No.

Not all of the Tominon macro lenses made for Polaroid are reversed tessars. And there are better macro lenses, some of which are f/6.3 reversed tessars. Two such are the CZJ (DDR) 90/6.3 Mikrotar and the Reichert 100/6.3 Neupolar. These two are among the best ~ 100 mm macro lenses.

Well, reverse Tessar or not, I like them. I don't do much macro anyway and scoring one for peanuts is more probable than getting a Raptar/Optar.
But I am more intrigued to somehow mount the Kowa. I really like DIY and the challenges it inheritly gives me. Besides, having the best does not make your work the best, just my philosophy. I like making stuff out of what I can get my dirty little hands on and then having fun with the outcome.

Well, there's always the joy of tinkering and the joy of doing what the wise old heads say can't or shouldn't be done. But the wise old heads may have good reasons for thinking that what you want to do just isn't worth the trouble even if possible. They may even have done what you intend to do.

Decent lenses for LF can be bought, with patience, for surprisingly little money. And not off-brand crap, either. Decent LF cameras can be bought, with patience, for surprisingly little money. Be patient. Watch for opportunities on the various ebay sites and on the various "free ads" sites. Be patient.

Remember that haste makes waste, also that many apparent gifts are in fact poisoned. In particular, very special circumstances excepted, putting a lens in barrel in shutter usually costs more than the equivalent lens in shutter. Been there, done that, recommend it only in special circumstances.

Remember that haste makes waste, also that many apparent gifts are in fact poisoned. In particular, very special circumstances excepted, putting a lens in barrel in shutter usually costs more than the equivalent lens in shutter. Been there, done that, recommend it only in special circumstances.

Yes, I've seen the Copal price list...it deeply saddens me. But I am still hoping to either score that 127 Tominon or a shutter for my Kowa lens. I also have a few plate cameras in my watch list. I am ok with refurbishing them and modifying the backs to accept a more standard film holder if necessary.
But I am stubborn enough, I want to use that Kowa lens. Actually I've been hunting a lens or a shutter for about half a year now. My best chance is American eBay but people tend to prefer the ultra-super-mega-expensive shipping option what costs more than the actual item on about 95% of the things I've considered

EDIT: I managed to disassemble the bastard, it unfortunately is purely a barrel lens, no separate cells :/ just a 38mm thread

Last edited by VPooler; 06-16-2013 at 03:18 PM. Click to view previous post history.

Graphic Kowas are a real mixed bag. Some can be completely unscrewed from the barrel mounts, these (in 150mm) are direct fits to a Copal 1 (not 0) shutter. I have one. Others can't be removed at all, and I've seen some where the front cell could be unscrewed but not the rear cell, or maybe it was the other way around.

Assuming they can be unscrewed from their barrel mounts, the longer focal length (210mm, 240mm, 270mm, 305mm, 360mm) Graphic Kowa, Kowa Graphic, and Computar fit a Copal 3S shutter, which is a little smaller than the much more common Copal 3. And to confuse things even further, some Copal 3S shutters are simply marked "3".

Last edited by Steve Goldstein; 06-16-2013 at 08:01 PM. Click to view previous post history.